Voyage to the Moon

Fig.1

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (Trip to the Moon) (1903) is one of the cinema's most iconic movie releases; but not just the movie itself, the cover art of the movie see Fig.1 - the bullet to the the eye of a smirking moon became one of the most recognizable image in cinema history. The film is a weird combination of imaginative and interesting aspects, and by using trick photography which resulted in a short movie about a group of scientists/wizards planning to explore the depth of the moon which they encounter bizarre terrain and mysterious creatures in order for them to reach their ship to go back.

During the showing of this film, some people do get the opinion that this movie wouldn't be any good or it might be too boring. However, you can't judge a book by its cover, so you can't judge this film from its cover. Despite the movie being over 100 years old, being black and white and a silent movie, by just watching their acting and performance was entertaining enough. This movie can't be compared to recent movies due to it being an old movie, however, it was the start of the development of the movie industry.

Méliès the magician moves from his stage recording to the dazzling voyage he went through was the first ever narrative sequences made. This movie was described as a 'Trick film' by using things such as card, paints and yarns to create fantastic structures for the set and using elaborate costumes to create the feel that they are in a different reality, and by using amazing special effects such as dissolving, fade away and superimposition had great effect to the audiences for example see Fig.2.

Fig.2 Still from the Movie

The film was structured with a lot of tableaux, which in turns contained a lot of trick photography as well as chaotic scenes and multiple camera trick,all of this effect can be seen a lot on Méliès films, however audiences adore all the special effects and easy to follow narration about the film.

Rotten tomatoes talks highly about the film as well as its narrations, however, Rotten tomatoes describe the story as, "Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery rode a slightly more sophisticated narrative to greater success" This tells me that despite how good everything is if the narration wasn't in league with everything else.

In conclusion, This film is a form of film memorabilia and is a worth a watch, that is in order to experience the old school movie world as well as to see the development of movies throughout the years. 


Illustration
Méliès, Georges, Fig, 1,  http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7JDaOOw0MEE/hqdefault.jpg

Méliès, Georges, Fig, 1, http://thealeaneyhorror.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/936full-a-trip-to-the-moon-poster1.jpg

Bibliography.

Wootton, Jacky (2014), Blogger, http://wootton217.blogspot.co.uk/

Mark Pittillo, Rovi, (unknown), Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_voyage_dans_la_lune/